Stephen, I remember seeing the Blue and the Gray when it first came out in the 1980s on TV. Liked it then. The brother who meets John-Boy in no-man's land at Vicksburg later went on to play Harrison in Gettysburg--Cooper Huckabee.

I thought it was a very entertaining story, but the hymn-singing Southern pyscho played by Warren Oates was a little over the top I thought.

But then again, considering you had guys like Bill Anderson, Jesse James, etc., maybe not.

Not sure, but think the guy who wrote it was Howard Fast, who wrote Spartacus a long time ago, and also a great Revolutionary War TV movie called "April Morning" with Tommy Lee Jones as a Massachusetts Yankee...lol